


Dark Matter

by Garlyle



Category: One Step From Eden
Genre: Contest Entry, Diary/Journal, Gen, Mentions of Death, Motherhood, Pre-Canon, Pseudoscience, So OSFE has like almost no lore or at least none revealed yet, Worldbuilding, but the nice thing is it's just enough to go however I want it to, do not copy to other sites, in the absence of canon I will create my own, this is only the beginning of my headcanons about him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2021-01-02 13:49:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21162677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garlyle/pseuds/Garlyle
Summary: They've given him a nickname already, a badge of accomplishment, a status as their leader.  A nom de guerre with which he plans to strike it out not as a soldier, but as a mercenary: Gunner.  He's the 'hero'.  I'm not so sure hero's the right word.





	Dark Matter

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Winter's Unofficial One Step From Eden Story Contest.  
For future readers: the game's in early beta right now and it is very possible this game wholly and completely contradicts every aspect of canon that will ever be revealed.  
With that said: Look at all these hecks I don't give, you will pry my headcanons out of my cold dead hands (or by giving me better alternatives)

**02/20XX**

The meteorite brought to the university this month is an object of no small curiosity. Traditionally we would simply catalogue its materials, and then I would help it 'go missing', but this time we observed a truly unique property. One that defines this material as truly extraterrestrial: It possesses no innate mana.

All entities, all objects, even the very air around us on this world is affected by a subtle, ambient flow we know as mana. This is so fundamental it's taught in nursery rhymes. However, recently it's been posited that beyond the atmosphere of our planet, this may not be the case – and this discovery is making some waves by providing evidence of that.

Upon observing the distinct lack of colour it contains upon inspection with a manaflow lens, my coworker waxed poetic about it being a dark spot in a brilliant world, and it seems to have stuck. We have named this new material, tentatively, "Dark Matter".

I've informed my husband that our plans to conceive will have to be on hold. Science waits for no woman, and this could balloon into the discovery of a decade.

  
**03/20XX**

The dark matter, despite consistent presence upon our planet, continues to refuse to store mana. We expected that perhaps it would slowly acclimate to the standards of this world, but that appears to not be the case. Very curious. Its additional repellent properties to other energies are also of note, but its consistent refusal of mana is our focus.

In other news, it would appear that the decision to delay having children was made a few nights too late. I thought I'd have been more excited about this, but being on the verge of a breakthrough, I cannot help but see it more as an obstacle.

**04/20XX**

Our previous observations were only partially correct. It is not that the material we have discovered within the meteorite does not contain mana. No, rather, dark matter has an unexpected property: it erases mana. This was—as may great discoveries are—a complete accident made because someone knocked some off of a table.

This is not the same technology currently being used by Phalanax in the refracting and repelling of Mana, make no mistake. We thought that to be the case at first, but reviewing recordings made through a manaflow camera showed that it briefly appears to have left a void in the mana behind it. That nullified space is quickly refilled by ambient mana, of course, but it is none the less fascinating.

**08/20XX**

The military has begun breathing down our necks. I'm surprised it took this long. The idea of a mineral that can negate mana momentarily has them clamouring with questions of its applications. As usual, peace has not filtered their greed for weaponry.

The biggest thing in our advantage right now is that we haven't shown it to have any potential for weaponization – just scientific curiosity. Our reserves of the material are so small that our experiments with it have been extremely conservative, for fear of permanently damaging our reserves. Were we to, say, carve a Spell upon it and have some unexpected effect occur, doubtless it would all be taken from us and we would never see it again; if not by military strong-arming, then by corporate thief.

**10/20XX**

True to expectation, my child has become an obstacle without even being born yet. Just as experiments involving the refraction of energy and mana-emptied spaces gets clearance, here I am burdened by maternal limitations, forced to stay confined to my home and personal lab. Yet my fascination will not be stopped. The group has no idea where a couple missing grams of dark matter have gone, and it will stay that way.

**11/20XX**

Something is wrong with my newborn son. My precious XXXX. Very, very wrong.

**12/20XX**

I am a woman of science, but I must wonder if this is a punishment for my sins.

First, and most importantly: the dark matter was stolen.. Everyone is under extremely heavy investigation by the university for possible involvement, including myself. At least the lens isn't falling too heavily in my direction, however, given my personal circumstances.

Secondly, my son's unusual condition has seemingly stabilized. He is breathing, crying, growing like a normal infant, and the lack of life in his eyes from those first weeks has gone.

His diagnosis, however, has not changed: His body does not possess mana.

I have been fortunate that the doctor we have been assigned is an old friend who understands the gravity of these test results and can keep them secret. By all accounts, he should not be alive – but here he is. Nothing like this has been recorded in medical history. I can posit only one theory: It is a consequence of my perpetual contact with Dark Matter while I carried him.

If XXXX's condition is revealed to the world, it will be a whole new storm of attention. There is no way I would not be subject to even heavier investigation, and my husband along with me. Our former and present crimes would surely come to light; if not by government officials than by paparazzi.

It pains me to leave the university behind, to leave behind everything I have worked so hard for, but we must.

**11/20XY**

XXXX's fourth birthday was celebrated with children of the village. I am so glad he has grown up to be so normal. The people here are so trusting, so simple, and most fortunate for us: so incredibly poor that there's been no real risk of someone examining him with anything that could reveal his deficiency.

The solitude has also afforded me confidence that I can resume my examinations of the Dark Matter now. Nobody from our old life has contacted me in months now, and I am eager to discover if XXXX's condition was a freak occurrence or a repeatable phenomenon.

**12/20XY**

The field mouse gave birth to a monster. I am aware that monster is not a scientific term, but it is an accurate one. I have incinerated it and the rest of its lot for good measure.

Sadly, due to the nature of being so far away from anyone with medical training, it would appear that I will suffer some lasting scars for this experiment. Then again, how could I have expected a newborn rat-thing to be able to spit ice with such force? I pray XXXX will block from memory what he saw of these events. This will be difficult to explain.

I fear for two things. One: that the remaining Dark Matter—wherever it may be—may hold a similar or even greater effect, in its larger quantities. And two: that if a common field mouse could give birth to a monster, what is my own child?

**08/20YX**

After watching the political situation of this country for a long time, the worst has occurred: war has been declared.

I have certainly considered fleeing, once again leaving with my husband and son for greener pastures. Yet the truth is that it has been a long thirteen years, and the two of us are not the spry young folk we once were. Dare I say it we've even become more sentimental fools in our growing age. This is our home. These people I wrote off as idiots (and to be fair, they largely still are) are none the less our idiots, our community. Their children are our XXXX's classmates, his best friends. He even confessed to us last night that he's developed his first crush on one of them. I would not want to tear him away from that.

Everyone here is worried. Yet they are burying their heads in the sand, praying the front line doesn't come here. Perhaps being here long enough has made me dumb by association, because I think I'd rather join them.

**09/20YX**

A complication emerged: I did not plan for Wand lessons in XXXX's schooling. It would appear his teachers were plenty ready to begin modern arms and spell training, likely by military order. War never changes, does it?

For XXXX, this presents a unique obstacle that I should have seen coming. Wands absorb mana from the nearby environment to power Spells. However, a wand that simply absorbs mana constantly is not a wand – it's a time bomb. Ask the countless unfortunate wielders of counterfeits and busted hand-me-downs for the proof of that.

So, wands require a small infusion of the wielder's mana to activate. This is so simple a concept that not only do they teach it to children, mine fortunately reminded me of it. He doesn't fully understand why this is a problem, why we're confining to his room instead of letting him 'play with all the cool wands'. We still haven't told him.

I can only feign an emergency mourning period for non-existent relatives for so long. There must be an answer.

**10/20YX**

I have never been a religious woman, but I prayed for a miracle in this desperate experiment, and something must have answered me. For once I am thankful, not scornful, for every weapon ever created; those made by my husband most importantly, for without his experience, this surely would have failed. As the war marches towards us, we will surely need this. Our son will surely need this.

Turning my precious dark matter, my unending experiment into a weapon is not the use I ever wanted for it. Yet there is no pretending we are not proud of our achievement. This is the greatest work we've ever created. 

I've attached a technical document outlining the exact specs for posterity, should someday this information be of value to another.

The short explanation is that it is not using mana in its day to day functionality. Rather, it is using batteries containing static charges of mana. This generates a simple but potent energy charge, rebounded off the dark matter itself, to unleash a burst that most certainly resembles a traditional spell. However, this energy is altered by contact with the dark matter. This causes an effect whereby it tears the mana from the air it passes through, erasing it.

Mana suffuses all in our world. So surrounding mana will immediately rush to fill the vacuum this creates, including cycling directly into the weapon. 

The more that this initial attack destroys, the more mana has to repair the void, and the more effective the charge. This small amount of mana is cycled and stored in the weapon's batteries - and used to fuel spells.

By all scientific laws of conservation, we have created a true impossibility: a battery that will recharge itself, a perpetual engine of power. I can't help but wonder if I wasn't the first to make this breakthrough, either. Perhaps this was why the original sample was stolen all those years ago. Had we been in more peaceful times, had we the material to spare, dark matter could have changed our society for the better with this discovery.

Of course, it's not an elegant weapon - it is a bulky armament that is obviously homemade. Yet it works. My husband has named it the M4 Manafire. I've never cared for naming weapons, but our son loves it.

**04/20YY**

This is the horrid reality of war: people die. When the battle came to us, we defended ourselves. And after a long twenty three years together, the same work that my husband once did in the name of science and business was used by another to take his life. Someone who probably didn't even know they were striking down the one who wrote that very spell.

I'd have perished too, were it not for my son. So many people here would have died today, were it not for him. Survivors have rallied around the lone warrior whose resistance was so fierce that it scared away the troops, hailing him, thanking him for saving their lives, for what remains of their homes as they pick up the pieces and bury the dead.

XXXX is angry and high on the thrill of victory, and so are so many of the other teens who survived. Battle scarred and bloodied, it pains me to know these young men and women are the same children he once played in the streets with, had sleepovers with, took classes with. The people he should've had a normal life with.

They're going to take up arms. We've tried to talk them out of it, but I suspect that when morning comes, they will all be gone on their way, likely to never return. They're all following his lead, after all. They've given him a nickname already, a badge of accomplishment, a status as their leader. A nom de guerre with which he plans to strike it out not as a soldier, but as a mercenary: Gunner. He's the 'hero'. I'm not so sure hero's the right word.

I saw him fight. Saw him revel in it. I saw the look on my dear XXXX's face, saw the flames and death dance in his eyes as he mowed down soldier after soldier after soldier. He was smiling, laughing, wild with a thrill that was only supposed to exist in fantastic novels. Not upon the bloody battlefield, not after watching his father die.

Maybe I did give birth to a monster – and all it took to realize it was to give him the chance to be one.


End file.
